This section walks through the creation of each of the characters, including those who were not included in the final film. I talk through their origins, who they’re based on and why I designed them the way I did. Under “other” I’ve included some extra sketches.
Characters
Dolly
Origins
Dolly is a Character with a lot of history. She was not originally created for this film. I actually created her two years previous in a second year illustration module. At the time an extended family member was going through chemotherapy and later passed away. During the class we were given different prompts to inspire our illustrations. One week I
got the prompt “Fear of Dead Things.” That inspired me to create the character Dolly, and she featured in each illustration I did after.
Hover over image and click the arrows to flick through my notes.
Daily Dollies
This is a self motivated project I started the day I was told my dad would need Chemotherapy. I drew Dolly every day for 365 days. I did this in order to keep track of how I was doing mentally. The video shows me flicking through these daily sketches.
Development
Here you can see the sketches where I develop Dolly’s character. In the beginning I was focused on developing her details and figuring out a system to calculate her proportions so that they would stay consistent. Later on I started to explore her facial expressions.
Dolly is the only human-like character in the film. I made this decision as she is the character I wanted the audience to empathize with the most. Through most of the film, she is an overlooked observer, doing no more than the audience does. In the end, she is the one that stands up and keeps going. She is the one that hits home the message of the film. It is my hope that any audience member that relates to her situation will feel encouraged to do the same.
Dolly, in this story, is based on my mom. She is the mature character, who understands the gravity of the situation and takes on the role of comforting the other toys. Her design is based on circles to compliment her approachable, kind personality.
Hover over image and click the arrows to flick through my notes.
Knit
Knit is based on my Dad. In my daily dolly sketches, I used Dolly to represent me and any other people in my life were represented as teddy bears. This included my dad, and so it only felt natural for his character in the film to be a teddy bear.
In the beginning my main focus was on how to indicate a knitted texture without making it so intricate that I wouldn’t have time to animate it. Then I moved on to proportions, much like in dolly’s design.
I did a turn around of the character to see him from all angles, and
then I did some really quick pose sketches to try and capture his energy and personality.
Unlike Dolly’s circular features, knit is based on a combination of rectangles and triangles. As seen in my research, squares and rectangles represent a feeling of being boxed in or trapped. Triangles also suggest danger. I rounded off all his features so that he would have a soft approachable finish, but the base of his design is made
up of symbolic rectangles and triangles.
Hover over image and click the arrows to flick through my notes.
The Balls
The three juggling balls, Jiggles, Wiggles and Giggles are based on three of my brothers, Seán, Robert and Brian. Although my brothers are all older than me, when we get together, it’s like we all revert back to our five year old selves. This is a big part of why these characters are portrayed as juvenile in the film.
These characters were also inspired by a specific type of sidekick character I’ve seen in a lot of TV shows and films. Almost every
Disney Princess has a cute little animal friend that loves them and
is extremely loyal. This, in turn, makes the audience more fond of the main character. I only had a short window of time to make the audience fall in love with Knit. This was important to achieve so that the outcome of the film would have some weight to it. The juggling balls’ role was to emphasize Knit’s positive character traits and convince the audience to like him.
In my sketches you can see that I considered a variety of design options. I thought about including stitches or having different facial expressions on each side of the ball. In the end I decided less
was more.
Hover over image and click the arrows to flick through my notes.
Cammi
Cammi the camera is the character that represents me. Being the only girl in a house of brothers I was always going to be the odd one out. Growing up, I was often too young to participate in things my big brothers’ did, so my way of joining in was just to watch and wait for the day I’d be big enough. To me, a clunky rectangular camera following after these energetic juggling balls, was a fitting representation of my childhood.
Cammi also had a functional role in the film. She takes the pictures that inspire Dolly to carry on the happy memories. I decided to make the part of Cammi that prints the photos, her mouth. This had a personal meaning for me that I don’t expect others to pick up on, but for me talking about my dad helps me to carry on. So Cammi printing the photos from her mouth, for me, represents her talking about her happy memories.
I probably struggled with Cammi’s design the most. It took a few attempts to figure out how to even put a face on a camera. You will see, even in the final storyboard her design was not yet nailed down and it changes halfway through.
Hover over image and click the arrows to flick through my notes.
Removed
Hover over image and click the arrows to flick through my notes.
Old Bear
This is a character from my first draft of the story. He was to represent the doctors and medical staff who slowed down my dad’s illness and gave us more time with him. I also wanted to leave the interpretation of this character open, so that people of faith could perceive him as representing god, if they wished. I ended up removing this character in the second draft of the story.
Baby Bear
Baby Bear was also a character from the first story draft. Her design was created before Cammi and the juggling balls. She was to have the same role as them, being a younger, cute character that looked up to Knit. I was never very confident with this character. I didn’t want all of the characters to be bears. At one point I considered making her a rabbit teddy. In the end, I came up with the idea of Cammi and she took Baby Bear’s place.
Other
These are other sketches, mostly including the characters interacting, that don’t have anywhere else to be included. The first three are the first sketches I ever made relating to this project. After are sketches relating to the final storyboard.
Hover over image and click the arrows to flick through my notes.